may attach to what I here reproduce in a more permanent shape, I most
cheerfully accept, in the interests of public justice, any
consequence which may result.

A remark or two concerning the publication of this rejoinder. It has
been hinted to me that the issue of it has been too long delayed to
secure for it any attention in England, owing to the fact that the
West Indies are but little known, and of less interest, to the
generality of English readers. Whilst admitting, as in duty bound,
the possible correctness of this forecast, and regretting the oft-
recurring hindrances which occasioned such frequent and, sometimes,
long suspension of my labour; and noting, too, the additional delay
caused through my unacquaintance with English publishing usages, I
must, notwithstanding, plead guilty to a lurking hope that some small
fraction of Mr. Froude's readers will yet be found, [21] whose
interest in the West Indies will be temporarily revived on behalf of
this essay, owing to its direct bearing on Mr. Froude and his
statements relative to these Islands, contained in his recent book of
travels in them. This I am led to hope will be more particularly the
case when it is borne in mind that the rejoinder has been attempted
by a member of that very same race which he has, with such eloquent
recklessness of all moral considerations, held up to public contempt
and disfavour. In short, I can scarcely permit myself to believe it
possible that concern regarding a popular author, on his being
questioned by an adverse critic of however restricted powers, can be
so utterly dead within a twelvemonth as to be incapable of
rekindling. Mr. Froude's "Oceana," which had been published long
before its author voyaged to the West Indies, in order to treat the
Queen's subjects there in the same more than questionable fashion as
that in which he had treated those of the Southern Hemisphere, had